The passion for cooking and food are the central theme of Pixar’s recent film
- Ratatouille. This complex and multi-faceted problem posed many challenges
that were solved using diverse computer graphics and production techniques.
In this course we will comprehensively cover all aspects including modeling,
dressing, shading, lighting and effects.

A lamp that opens when the light is switched on and closes when switched off:

The lampshade is comprised of polypropylene “petals” and six bi-metallic strips
which are activated by the heat emitted by a bulb. Bi-metallic strips are a
sandwich of copper and steel. When heated, the copper expands more than the
steel causing the strip to bend.

Discover how Earth works through play! Earth Primer is a science book for
playful people. Visit volcanoes, glaciers, sand dunes. Play with them, look
inside, and see how they work. The forces of nature are at your fingertips.

Great talk by Mikey Dickerson about his part in the effort to rescue
healthcare.gov after its disastrous launch on
October 1:

healthcare.gov, possibly the most closely watched government IT project of all
time, launched to intense media scrutiny on October 1, 2013…and spectacularly
fell on its face. The next six months would be a watershed in the federal
government, as a trillion-dollar agency came to grips with the fact that there
was no product to buy, and no check they could write, to deliver a working
website.

Payload was extremely low-tech. A shoebox wrapped in duct tape, it carried two
GoPro Hero 2 HD cameras and a SPOT GPS. The balloon was supposed to carry the
cameras to an altitude between 80,000 and 100,000 feet (24-30 km). It would
drift south and eventually land in the southern Mojave Desert.

An interesting piece on the past, present and future of the gas holders dotted
all around the United Kingdom:

Its not just their history that makes them special. Primarily they are
beautiful structures - if they are new and built today they would retain that
quality, and we’d want to keep them. It’s the spider’s web of iron that makes
them unique.

Video to GIF can generate GIFs from hundreds of popular video sites, so the
chances of yours being included are pretty high. Take that video (size limit
1G) and paste the URL right into the input field.

A fascinating piece about the artists whose work formed the famous backdrops in
Star Wars:

Matte paintings are fake sets that—most of the times—used to be made with
plexiglass and oil paint. The artists used oversized panels to create the
necessary detail that the camera needed to fool the audiences when the film
was projected over the large surface of the theater screen.

Grim Fandango takes place amongst the dead, those who have left the living
behind. But in the game, the living are not an ideal the dead aspire towards,
but caricatures, those frozen, ransom note horrors.